Watching water
June in Cornwall, and at last the weather feels like summer – glorious sunshine, with the bonus of a cooling breeze. I am sitting by the pond in my garden watching the fountain as I write this. The fountain pump shoots the droplets of water up into the air and they fall back into the pond with a soothing tinkle.
The water droplets look separate as if they are independent of the others in the same arc of water. Some are small, others larger. They catch the sunlight as they move through the air and sparkle like diamonds.
The droplets come from the water in the pond and return to merge with it again. This could be a metaphor for human life itself, whether you see it in purely physical terms, or have your own beliefs about the survival of the soul or spirit.
It occurs to me that the cycle of life could be seen as ‘water to water’ as much as ‘ashes to ashes’, given that human bodies are 98% water. Each person sparkles through the trajectory of their life in their own unique way and returns to the whole on their death.
The subject of water as an inspiration and a metaphor has so many avenues to follow.
So over to you, what symbolism does water have for you today?
You could use various ways of exploring this:
* Lists: just start a list of your thoughts about water and then explore any that seem interesting
* Flow writing: write for a timed period, say ten minutes, and keep the pen moving on the paper. It doesn’t matter if what you are writing doesn’t make sense or you write ‘I don’t know what to write’, just keep going. This helps to free your mind from the constraints of grammar and logic for a while. When you have finished see if there are any words, phrases or ideas that stand out for you,
With either of these techniques the idea is to have fun, as well as exploring creatively, there is no ‘right’ way to do it, enjoy the process.
I did the flow writing exercise before putting these reflections together, and as well as the ideas above, my thoughts ranged from ‘water is a force of nature that can sweep away the works of human beings in a moment’, to ‘go with the flow, do not resist, the river of life takes you where you need to go’, to thinking about earth, air and fire as well as water. Any of those nuggets could be developed into a whole new train of thought, taking me … who knows where?!
(c) Mary Lunnen, Dare to Blossom – All Rights Reserved
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